AHF billboards aim to roll back HIV uptick

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation launched a billboard, online and radio campaign encouraging Angelenos to get tested.

Billboards and palm cards, appearing in Los Angeles, feature an image of a man's muscular back with the words “Stay negative” tattooed across the shoulders. The group said the ads, produced in-house, have already prompted a spike in traffic to the campaign's website, www.freeHIVtest.net, as well as bricks-and-mortar testing sites.

The “Stay Negative” campaign marks the kickoff of a year-long effort to test 40,000 people for HIV in Los Angeles through community-based partnerships, the group said, noting that the Centers for Disease Control found a 15% increase in new cases of HIV/AIDS in 2007.

The LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a hybrid care provider and advocacy organization, has run narrowly targeted ad campaigns blasting drugmakers over pricing issues in the past.